After seeing this pristine-plumaged Whinchat on an unmown strip between blocks of football pitches on Wanstead Flats on Saturday morning (18 April) – and after Nick Croft’s great photos of the bird (which appear with this article) – I was inspired to look back over our spring records. To put things in context, this gorgeous …
After the early promise of Wheatears in mid-March, followed by a handful of Sand Martins and Swallows, and the establishment of territories by Chiffchaffs and then Blackcaps, not much visible bird migration was witnessed in the first few days of April. All that changed on 5th when two Red Kites and six Common Buzzards passed …
On Saturday 3rd January Nick Croft found a winter-plumaged Slavonian Grebe on Heronry Lake, in Wanstead Park. The bird – which is intermediate in size between Little Grebe and Great Crested Grebe – is still present at the time of writing. It has been diving almost constantly for small fish with, it has to be …
Wanstead Flats was at its very best for early autumn migrant birds on Sunday morning, 31st August, with a lovely selection of chats, warblers and flycatchers, and a few Swallows passing through. The good thing about the Flats is that the area holds birds … there is plenty of food and cover for them. Minimum …
Whilst walking along the east end of Perch Pond on 7th August, I stopped to investigate both the plants along the pond’s bank, and to watch the various dragonflies and damselflies flying along there. There were several of the various ‘blue’ damselflies, a Brown Hawker, a female Emperor Dragonfly (egg-laying), but the only one I managed …
